Glastonbury festival gets police approval
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Your support makes all the difference.The police will allow an application for the return of the Glastonbury festival this summer, the event's organiser, Michael Eavis, said yesterday.
But the Avon and Somerset police force will question how he intends to deal with crowd problems caused by people without tickets turning up for the three-day event, scheduled for the final weekend in June.
Mendip District Council will meet on Thursday to decide whether to grant a licence for the festival, which has had repeated trouble with gatecrashers over the years, which led to its cancellation last year.
Mr Eavis wants to return with a 140,000-ticket event, bigger than previous years. The extra revenue raised would help pay for £1m worth of fencing around the venue at Worthy Farm, in Pilton, Somerset.
Mr Eavis warned that gatecrashers were threatening the festival, which raises thousands of pounds for charity.
"People cannot come without tickets. The show will definitely not continue without that hard-and-fast guarantee," he said. "It seems we may be given one last chance to see if we can control the numbers."
It was great news that the police were not opposing the application, he added. "It makes it easier for the licensing authority to actually run with it. I am fairly confident that we will get a positive result."
An Avon and Somerset police spokesman said they could not comment on what advice they were offering the council. The police have previously opposed the licence because of serious trouble at the festival.
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